[governance] Business Class for Human Rights?

Sat Sep 8 21:02:13 EDT 2012

Hi Wolfgang,

I think that there is a distinction between what ordinary access is. Take
Finland where they hold that 1MB access of Broadband as a Human Right.
Whilst 1MB is a human right in Finland it is not so for much of the world
where access, availability, affordability is still an issue. Recently talks
about US FCC proposed Universal Service Funds on global submarine cable
investments to benefit much of the developing world where they land had
been met with much criticism. (sigh)

The reality is all Telcos all over the world charge different prices for
different products and the more the bandwidth and increase in QoS, the more
you pay. If we take Finland's position and say X Bandwidth is a human right
and therefore either (FREE) or heavily subsidised by Government, then
anything on top of it is chargeable to whoever wants ti pay for it...would
be commercial sense.

On the other hand declaring access as a human right may mean getting
massive subsidies for global submarine deployment in developing countries
but of course I am dreaming...lol

But on the issue raised by Luigi Gambardella, it follows that a proposal by
the European Network Operators Association (ETNO) on the principle that
Sender Party pays in terms of Traffic is similar to the principle of
Calling Party pays. The irony is that the link mentions that there is
significant traffic sent to Europe from the US which will mean that the US
would be placed in a "checkmate" position.

The EC and the US have no doubt been at loggerheads where it comes to the
issue of taxation and the US of course has since the passage of the US
Congress's Tax Freedom Act 1998[ (*authored by Representative Christopher
Cox and Senator Ron Wyden and signed into law on October 21 1998 by then
President Clinton*) which following expiry continued to be reauthorised and
it most recent reauthorisation) was in October 2007 where this has been
extended till 2014] consistently held that taxation for them would be from
source, which means "no tax" as opposed to EC's attempts to tax at
consumption.

Cheers,
Sala

There are many reasons for the US to oppose the ETNO on this front.
On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 4:24 AM, "Kleinwächter, Wolfgang" <
wolfgang.kleinwaechter at medienkomm.uni-halle.de> wrote:

> Will the ETNO/WCIT proposal lead to  a mechanism where we have different
> classes for use of the human right to freedom of expression and to
> communicate? And even more: If you introduce a "business class" you have to
> introduce a checkpoint to seperate business from eceonomy and this can be
> done only via content control and DPI and leads directly to censorship. Any
> comments?
>
>
> http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57501754-38/euro-isps-defend-new-fees-as-business-class-internet-q-a/
>
> Wolfgang
>
>
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-- 
Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala
P.O. Box 17862
Suva
Fiji

Twitter: @SalanietaT
Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
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